104 ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



of this is, a great many farmers have no place to set milk and keep it cool 

 enough for the cream to rise, and ice to keep their butter hard is out of the 

 question outside of town, as we seldom harvest ice here that will keep all 

 summer ; but there are hundreds of farms in this county which have good, 

 cool springs upon them which will do very well in place of ice. The temper- 

 ature of our spring is from 50 deg. to 54 deg. Fah., which is cold enougli for 

 all dairying purposes, if you build yourself a spring house. The water which 

 runs through my spring-house is about 52 deg. 



" 1 set milk in deep cans that I had made to my order. The rim of the 

 cover fits over the outside of the can so that the condensed water does not 

 run into the can. 



" My cows have averaged in the four years $67 a piece each year. This 

 is the net proceeds of butter sold. The milk, cream and butter we used we 

 have no account of. I also raise all the calves on the skim milk, so you can 

 credit each cow with about $10 more, making in all $77. 



'' Now to the cost of keeping. The grain, hay, fodder and pasture— all 

 the cow eats— I charge her with the same as if I had to buy it, and I think 

 it amounts to all of $50 each, leaving about $27 to the credit of each cow. 



" I ship my butter to a retail grocery house in Cairo, where I receive the 

 retail price of butter less 12 per cent, commission. I have had offers for my 

 butter by the year, if I would take three cents a pound above the highest 

 quotation of El^in creamery each week. This is about what the commission 

 and freight would be, but I do some better. 



'' The counties of Union, Jackson, Johnson and Pulaski, are not well 

 adapted to creameries. First, our country is very broken, and the roads are 

 rough. Second, our summers are very hot, and this would make cream gath- 

 ering very expensive and rather damaging to the quality of the cream, but 

 as I said, we have plenty of good, cold springs that are suitable for dairying 

 purposes, and the business could be made to pay well. If we could have 

 refrigerator cars run on certain days, say once a week, from Centralia to 

 New Orleans, we could take advantage of the Southern markets, and as 

 dairying in Southern Illinois increases, this may be done. 



''The question of what to feed to obtain the best result, is an important 

 one. Our pasture here is mostly a mixture of red- top, blue-grass and white 

 clover, and is a very good early spring and late autumn pasture. During 

 part of July and August and September, our pasture, owing to dry and tho 

 weather which generally prevails, is not good, and cows do not do as well 

 those months, as they should, except when you feed, or have clover fields for 

 them to run in. For my part, I do not like to feed much clover, either by 

 pasturing or as hay, if I want to make butter, as I do not believe clover will 

 make as good butter as timothy or corn fodder. Three-quarters of the 

 ''roughers" (as it is called here) I feed, is corn fodder. I cut most of my 

 corn when ripe enough to be safe, and put it up in shocks of twelve hills 

 square; after it has stood long enough for the corn to mature and the stalks 

 to dry out enough so it will keep, I have it husked out, and the fodder tied 

 into bundles. I use rye straw, tieing it twice, near the bottom and also at 

 the top of the bundle, and it is then easy to handle, and will pack close to- 

 gether. I haul and pile all I can under sheds and in the barn, the rest I put 

 in large shocks, convenient to the barn, and tie them as well as I can, near 

 the top; I use that first. I also sow rye among my corn, which I generally 

 do the last time we cultivatethe corn; it does no harm to the corn,but is rather 

 beneficial, as it keeps the ground shaded so it will not dry out so rapidly as it 

 would if bare, and thus I have a good fall and winter pasture for my stock. I 

 have the corn fodder run through a cutting box before feeding it, and the 

 corn I have crushed, cob and all. I feed four quarts of this, two of bran,and 

 two of shipstuffs or ground oats to each cow, morning and evening, in winter. 

 During summer I cut down this to about half the amount, and increase 

 again as pastures fail." 



In conclusion we would simply say that there is an earnest and grow- 

 ing interest in dairying and improved stock raising, throughout Southern 

 Illinois, and the prospects are that much will be done the coming year to 

 entitle us to a higher position on the dairy ladder. 



Convention adjourned sine die. 



